ThyssenKrupp Takes $4.65 Billion Charge, Will Pay No Dividend

On Monday, German steel giant ThyssenKrupp announced that its supervisory board has approved the firm's financial statements for fiscal 2011-2012. Despite achieving its self-proclaimed target of earning 399 million euros in adjusted operating earnings before interest and taxes, the company has decided to take a couple of measures that may not please investors so well.

ThyssenKrupp has elected not to pay a dividend for the fiscal year. The company has also taken an impairment charge of 3.6 billion euros ($4.65 billion) at its Steel Americas unit.

ThyssenKrupp explained that because of "the advanced status of the sale process for the plants in Brazil and the USA the Steel Americas business area is classified as a discontinued operation for fiscal year 2011/2012. In this connection impairment charges of €3.6 billion were recorded for Steel Americas." Thus, it appears that the company expects to sell its Americas operations at a loss.

Going forward, ThyssenKrupp's board noted that all of its continuing operations will be profitable and predicted that adjusted EBIT in the current fiscal year will be "around 1 billion" euros, or $1.29 billion.